The shopping ermine

Ermine

Aspen Valley staff are used to receiving phone calls about quite a variety of animals, ranging from raccoons (many), to owls (occasionally), to bats (rare), but recently we received a call regarding an animal not previously seen at the sanctuary.
Staff was called by the owner of a store in Huntsville saying that they had trapped a small animal that had been living in the store for some time, leaving its mark here and there among the merchandise. Naturally, they were quite perturbed by the situation and set out a live trap to capture it and bring it to Aspen Valley.
When it arrived, staff determined it was a weasel, but thought at first that it had to be a young one because of its small size. However, on closer investigation the white animal had a black tip on its tail – a distinguishing characteristic of the winter coat of the short-tailed weasel, better known as the ermine. When it arrived, it was barely conscious and shivering, but soon recovered after being placed in a cage with a heating pad and blanket to snuggle up in.
The short-tailed weasel has the capability of changing its coat colour from brown, with a paler underbelly in summer, to completely white in winter, except for a black tip on its tail, which remains the same regardless of season. This, of course, allows the animal to blend into its environment, and it is found all over Canada, the northern United States, Europe and Asia (where it is known as a stoat). When a predator such as fox, coyotes, falcons, owls and hawks hunt the weasel, it is drawn to the black tip on the tail, enabling the ermine to make an escape.
The ermine is one of three weasels found in Canada, the larger one being the long-tailed weasel, which also has a black tip on its tail, and the smaller being the least weasel, which is just a little larger than a mouse and which does not have a black tip on its tail. They all have very short legs, a long snout, big eyes and a long slender body.
Their diet includes small mammals such as mice, squirrels, rabbits, birds, insects and even berries, and they must eat 40 per cent of their body weight each day in order to survive. They kill their prey by biting down hard on the base of the skull.
Ermine are nocturnal (mostly active at night), territorial, good swimmers and climbers and thus are the scourge of chicken farmers in particular. They generally live alone, except to mate, and have an interesting reproductive technique.
They generally mate around September, but the female does not actually become pregnant until March and will give birth to about six babies in mid-April to late May. This is known as delayed implantation, where the male’s sperm does not actually fertilize the female’s eggs for more than nine months, and is an adaptation that many wild animals employ in order to ensure that the offspring will be born in the warm weather.
Ermine are prized by trappers for their fur. The white fur and black tail end of this animal is historically worn by and associated with royalty and high officials. Just imagine how many animals it would take just to make one coat!
The ermine at Aspen Valley is now moving rapidly around its cage, eating well, and will remain at Aspen Valley until the weather becomes a little more hospitable. We will then find a spot outside of Huntsville so that it can do no more “shopping” in future.(These weekly articles are contributed by staff at the Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary. The sanctuary rehabilitates orphaned and injured wildlife with a mandate to educate the public towards a better understanding of local fauna.)